File:531Zerlina_(Lightcurve_Inversion).png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Picture of the Day · NASA
Pathfinder on Mars
2026-07-04
On July 4th, 1997, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft bounced like a giant beach ball at least 15 times before it came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time. After its then novel airbag-assisted landing sequence was completed, Pathfinder transmitted this color mosaic to mission operators on Earth. In the scene from another world, the Mars Sojourner robot rover is visible in the foreground, crouched on top of the unfolded Pathfinder. About the size of a large house cat, the six-wheeled, solar-powered Sojourner became the first successful Martian rover. Surrounding Pathfinder are deflated airbags and the rock-strewn terrain of the Ares Vallis floodplain. In the distance Martian hills appear against a dusty brownish sky. The Pathfinder lander was subsequently renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station.
via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 12 April 1904
- Pronunciation
- Italian: [ dzerˈliːna ]
- Named after
- Zerlina , Masetto's fiancée, ( Don Giovanni )
- Alternative designations
- 1904 NW · 1955 HA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Pallas
- Observation arc
- 112.56 yr (41,114 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.3356 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2379 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7867 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.65 yr (1,699 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 104.09 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 42.84 / day
- Inclination
- 33.994°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 197.73°
- Argument of perihelion
- 57.751°
- Dimensions
- 13.65 ± 0.32 km , 13.87 ± 4.02 km , 14.11 ± 0.45 km , 15.12 km (derived) , 15.19 ± 1.3 km , 15.8 ± 1.6 km , 16 ± 2 km , 17.804 ± 0.178 km
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Diameter
- 17.804
- Orbital period
- 1696.310735226328
- Image
- 531Zerlina (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 15 more facts
- provisional designation
- 1955 HA
- time of discovery or invention
- 1904-04-12
- orbital inclination
- 34.02745951956663
- Commons category
- 531 Zerlina
- albedo
- 0.101
- rotation period
- 16.706
- absolute magnitude
- 12.05
- orbital eccentricity
- 0.1993885635745541
- semi-major axis of an orbit
- 2.783586078450943
- periapsis
- 2.228570848682484
- apoapsis
- 3.338601308219403
- longitude of ascending node
- 197.6681036157539
- argument of periapsis
- 57.53640292112932
- mean anomaly
- 20.59194193961566
- time of periapsis
- 2460903.471299524
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Article
531 Zerlina, provisional designation 1904 NW, carbonaceous Palladian asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 18 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 12 April 1904. It is named for a character in Mozart's opera, Don Giovanni H 57).
Observations using the IRAS satellite have shown it to have an absolute magnitude of 11.8, a diameter of 15.19 kilometers, a rotational period of 16.706 hours, and an albedo of 0.1460.